Meet governance standards

Charities must meet a set of governance standards to be registered and remain registered with the ACNC. The governance standards do not apply to a limited class of charities called ‘basic religious charities’.

Charities do not need to submit anything to the ACNC to show they meet the standards, but must have evidence of meeting the standards that they can provide if requested.

What are governance standards?

The governance standards are a set of core, minimum standards that deal with how charities are run (including their processes, activities and relationships) – their governance.

The standards require charities to remain charitable, operate lawfully, and be run in an accountable and responsible way. They help charities remain trusted by the public and continue to do their charitable work. Because the governance standards are a set of high-level principles, not precise rules, your charity must decide how it will comply with them.

Attention - Important information!Your charity must be able to demonstrate that the steps it has taken to comply are appropriate for it (considering factors such as its size, purpose and activities). For example, a larger charity or one with vulnerable beneficiaries may need to take extra steps to comply with the standards.

What the standards require

Standard 1: Purposes and not-for-profit nature

Charities must be not-for-profit and work towards their charitable purpose. They must be able to demonstrate this and provide information about their purposes to the public.

Standard 4: Suitability of responsible persons

Charities must take reasonable steps to:

be satisfied that its responsible persons (such as board or committee members or trustees) are not disqualified from managing a corporation under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) or disqualified from being a responsible person of a registered charity by the ACNC Commissioner, and